FINCHforum

I have a pair of zebra hens in a double flight cage. I saw a young zebra hen and a society that I would like to purchase but 1st wondered if the two would bond and 2nd will they eventually be able to go into the big double flight cage with the two zebra hens? Since society finch are hard to sex I have no idea whether it is male or female.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Lisa

I'm sure that the two birds would bond with each other. When I first bought my birds, I got a male zebra and a male society, and they are the best of friends. I guess the trauma of being snatched from the cages they were in at PetsMart caused them to form a relationship. I have heard that sometimes if there are a lot of female zebras in a cage and then a male is introduced, then there can be some aggression because they are trying to get the male's attention. But, I don't know if this would happen with a society finch being introduced, even if it is a male. Personally, I would say after you quarantine them, go ahead and move them into the main cage, but that is just me.

Thanks for your input. The pair is at a local bird store and since the society is the only society in the cage and has been there for awhile, maybe the owners have noticed behaviors that might give them idea of the sex. There are also some Cordon Bleu finch in the cage, they are so beautiful but I think I better stick with what I think are the hardist breeds since I'm a novice at bird keeping.

Thanks again,
Lisa

You shopping at Shirley's again? Try as you might it's hard to predict exactly how finches will behave cause individual personalities can vary greatly. I will say this. We have numerous couples cages, and two cages made up with just boys, but the one cage that gives us the most fits is the one consisting only of hens. They bicker constantly and fight over everything. Took out anything that could even remotely be considered a nest before making the cage up or things most certainly would have been worse. The one time we had a small cardboard platform in there for a hen that was recovering from a sickness, they fought over until so badly that one hen actually killed another hen. Not saying that's what will happen in your case, but sometimes you have to expect the worst and hope for the best.

Put a divider on the top perch. That way each pair can have their own space. I have had my dominant pair chase the others off "thier" perch. The divider stopped that behavior, because they could not easily get to the other side of the divider, and they can't see around it w/o flying off the perch.

Just watch the birds.
They may surprise you and re-pair up. That is what happened when I put 2 hens into the hen cage. The 2 pairs broke up and re-paired up w different partners.

Well I wasn't really shopping at Shirley's but........ I took my baby zebra down to them about 2 weeks ago. I stopped for bird food the other day and while there are usually only two or three birds in the finch cage this time the cage is full. I felt bad watching baby try to fly to the swing and getting caught in all that traffic. Then, the other day, a girl at work asked if Shirley still had my baby bird, she proceded to tell me she bought a little wicker cage at the flea market and thought she would buy her and keep her in the cage. Yikes, I did some fast talking and hope I convinced her that it was a bad idea. Anyway, it got me to thinking about getting her and the society and trying to keep them as a pair.

I thought about putting them in with the two hens in the double flight cage. Those are the two girls from "That Pet Place" and they actually seem very interested in all the other birds. I thought maybe they missed being in a flock?

Well I didn't want to do anything rash that's why I came here looking for opinions. And I thank you all for your input.

Lisa